tenebrisfandomcom-20200215-history
User blog:Erevan/Welcome to Wizard School
After resting and recovering from our previous encounters, we were ready to progress to our goal: Mare Visium, the long-lost city on the lake. The walls seemed to be in fairly good shape, for the most part; some areas had begun to crumble, but they were still solid. They would have kept any roving hordes out of the city, but also kept any infected residents in. The gates were likewise in good condition, and heavily fortified. We decided not to attempt breaching like we had at the watchtower on the river, but to simply find a quiet place to scale the walls. We made it to the top with little incident (the wizard aside), but soon ran into trouble: ghasts, the more fearsome variants of ghouls, had seen or heard us, and were waiting behind some overgrown bushes. No one knows if these are younger, more vital versions, or an older and stronger development of the ghoul, or if they are simply an offshoot evolution. Something about the infected person may determine what they become, or perhaps it is how they are infected. I didn't used to care so much about the cause as the cure, but something of Ivellios must be rubbing off on me. I don't see any way of discovering the answers, though, without capturing several creatures and allowing them to infect people in various ways, then keeping those people for observation - but that would be cruel. Perhaps condemned prisoners? But what if the resulting indead creation proved too powerful to contain? Bah! Thoughts for another time. We defeated the ghasts without much trouble, thanks to generous use of petrify spells and long falls off the wall. We spied a compound likely to be the university, and set towards it along the wall. We were quite lucky to have found it so quickly; I would not want to have to fight through the streets across the city to reach it. We scaled down the outer wall into the self-enclosed compound (see earlier comments on advantages of walls) and began our investigation in what turned out to be a staff housing area. It was a small cluster of two-story houses, likely for those without families; we figured that use of magical cleaning items would prevent the need for a large staff, and the arrival of a self-powered rake doing groundswork proved our theory true. We could hear a few zombies shuffling inside one of the houses, and decided to draw them out and claim the house as a base; unfortunately, luring them from thehouse also brought every other zombie in the area straight to us. We barricaded ourselves in the now-cleared house, and took shelter on the balcony overlooking the entry. I suggested we use the same strategy that had worked so well against the watchtower's hall full of undead, and the team agreed. Ivellios cast Spike Growth, making the entire first floor (and a bit out the doors) into difficult, weaponized terrain. The zombies burst in, and in their zeal for prey tore themselves to pieces on the thorns. Any that actually made it to the stairs we just shot or pushed back down into the the thorns. There were two buildings nearby, but only one had an entrance we could see; it appeared to be the kitchen and supply doors to the main hall, so we decided to investigate. Coming up into the hall we found long tables with benches, and suits of armor lining the walls. At the far end were two massive double doors, each flanked by armor fit for a giant. Since our paladin, Jarvis, was in need of better armor, we decided that one of these fully functional sets would be perfect for him. Unfortunately, when we tried to remove the closest one's helm we discovered just how funcitonal they were: six suits or armor all stepped off their plinths, while the one we were taking apart knocked us all down. We quickly realized we couldn't fight them all, and Malrik cast Dispel Magic. Normally it would negate any animation spells, but it just seemed to stun the suits. He believes they may be automatons, instead of simply magically animated armor. We took what we could ( a single gauntlet) and retreated before they could reactivate. With preparation, we should be able to take one apart - but if the library is behind the doors guarded by the giant armor (as we suspect it is), we'll need a plan. Breaking into it another way would activate who knows what kind of traps, so that way is out, but if our first attempt fails at least we know they won't pursue us out of the hall. Category:Blog posts